Vermillion said this week it has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a patent covering the use of various biomarker combinations for the diagnosis and management of breast cancer.
According to the patent application the biomarkers include apolipoprotein A1, apolipoprotein A2, haptoglobin alpha 1, transferrin, and complement C3a and are "useful to determine metastasis-free survival of breast cancer patients."
The notice follows on Vermillion's announcement in January that it had been granted a US patent allowing it to use B2-microglobulin as a biomarker for its peripheral artery disease diagnostic Vasclir, and that it had begun an intended-use population study for the test (PM 1/14/2011).
Also this week, Vermillion increased the price target on its planned offering of common stock to $33.9 million from the $17.3 million initially cited when the company filed its prospectus two weeks ago (PM 1/21/2011). In the original filing it put forth plans to offer 2,098,539 shares at a price of up to $8.22 per share. According to the adjusted filing, the company now plans to offer up to 4 million shares at a maximum price of $7.36 per share.